Pain Perdu and "Amelie"

Pain Perdu is the French dish that consists off bread dipped in an eggy custard and pan fried in butter - sound familiar? In America we know this dish simply as French Toast. Pain Perdu in French means "lost bread" and it's name comes from the common use of older bread that has become too hard to eat. Dipping it in the custard was a way to use the bread they'd other wise have to discard. Actually, using day old bread that is a bit harder works better then fresh bread that's still soft. The stale bread will soak up more of the custard without becoming mushy. Today, French Toast is a staple on breakfast tables and diner menus across the country and it's a favorite meal of mine anytime of day. The key to making great Pain Perdu is using very good crispy bread and having a perfectly sweet custard to dip it in. Since we're making a very simple and classic French dish today, a perfect movie to go along with it is 2001 film "Amelie". Some of you may write this film off right away. It's a foreign movie and you'll have to read the subtitles, Unless you understand French, but this is a beautiful, funny, heartwarming, and magical film I really think you should all see. Before we get into the flick, lets make our food!

Recipe yields 6 to 8 large slices of Pain Perdu

1 loaf of good quality French Bread (a day or two old is best)
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

¼ cup of heavy cream

¼ teaspoon of cinnamon

1 pinch of nutmeg

Butter
Maple syrup or powdered sugar for serving

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

In a shallow dish, combine the 3 whole eggs and the heavy cream. To make the custard for my Pain Perdu a little thicker and richer, I like to add an additional egg yolk to the mixture. If you don't know how to separate and egg yolk for the white, it's actually really simple. There are many methods to do this but the easiest is just to crack the egg and pour the egg through into your hand over a bowl like I have pictured. Separate your fingers slightly and gently shake your hand. The egg whites will fall through the crack of your fingers leaving only the egg yolk.

To the eggs and the cream, add your vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Whisk the custard together until the eggs have been beaten together.

In a saute pan, melt about a tablespoon of butter over medium to medium high heat. Take a slice of your bread and lay it in the egg custard. Let the bread soak for about five to ten seconds on each side so that it's able to absorb a good amount of the custard.

Once the butter has melted in the pan, lay the bread in the melted butter. Fry the toast on each side for about five minutes or so. To be honest I rarely time my Pain Perdu when I cook it in my pan, it's all about color and texture. The bread should be golden brown with some spots of darker brown throughout.


Once the toast has been fried on both sides, transfer right from the pan to the plate or into the oven while we finishing frying the rest. Add more butter to the pan as needed when cooking the batches of toast.

For serving, I like the cut the Pain Perdu in half on an angle. Arrange the toast nicely onto a plate and place a nice pat of cold butter on top. The heat from the Pain Perdu will melt the butter. Top with either powdered sugar or some maple syrup and serve hot. It's no wonder the world has fallen in love with this classic French dish. Perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or desert! Now that we have a plate on sweet and delicious French Pain Perdu it's time to enjoy one of the best French Films ever created, "Amelie".

Amelie is a strange young woman with an imagination that knows no bounds. As a young girl, she was miss diagnosed with a heart condition which kept her from attending school like the other children. Instead, Amelie spent most of her childhood alone and used her imagination to keep her entertained. Now a young woman working in the heart of Paris as a waitress, she still sees the world in the same beautifully imaginative way she did as a young girl.

One night, Amelie discovers a hidden tin filled with childhood treasures of a previous occupant on her apartment. When Amelie secretly returns the lost tin to it's rightful owner, she witnesses his reaction of pure joy. Seeing the mans reaction, Amelie becomes inspired by her actions and devotes her life to bringing that same joy to the people around her. Throughout her journey, Amelie may have met the love of her life...if she allows herself to believe it. The world of love and beauty she thought only existed in her imagination might not be as far off as she dreamed.

"Amelie" is a unique film. It's directed in a very artful and almost magical way that I couldn't help but fall in love with. The soundtrack alone is enough to watch this movie, it's truly a beautiful score that Yann Tiersen created. "Amelie" wasn't a movie I thought I would enjoy at all, and it ended up restoring my faith in films. If any of you ever questioned if making movies was a form of art, "Amelie" should prove to you a thousand times over that it is. Click here for a quick glimpse at the movie, "Amelie".